1858 – Stormont Castle, Belfast

Designed by Thomas Turner with Henry Davison, Turner was the son of the celebrated Richard Turner of Dublin. Stormont Castle was originally built circa 1830 but was reworked and extended in 1858 by its original owners, the Cleland family, to the designs of Turner in the fashionable Scottish baronial style. The 1830s house known as ‘Storm Mount’ was described as a ‘large plain house with very little planting about it’. It has been suggested that the original Georgian house is the symmetrical five-bay block facing south.

The building and 235 acres of land was bought by the newly established Government of Northern Ireland for £15,000 in 1921. The initial intention was to demolish the house, but it was saved by pressure of local opinion. It was used from 1922 until 1940 as the official residence of the first Prime Minister, Sir James Craig, and subsequently as offices for the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Office until 1972. With the imposition of direct rule in 1972, it served as the Belfast headquarters of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Office (NIO) ministers and supporting officials. Now in use by the Northern Ireland Executive.